Overpowered Tactics A2: Broken Combinations
Welcome to the second installment of Overpowered Tactics A2.
The first article dealt with ways to work around the judges and laws in Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift; extremely useful knowledge for anybody who plays the game (at least, if you want to gain the additional benefits of judges).
What about the more fun aspects of the gameplay? Well, there’s certainly a lot of variety to be seen in Tactics A2. The game features 7 playable races (8 if you count Cid, who is a Revgaji with the Bangaa skillset), 57 jobs and literally thousands of different abilities and items, most of which serve a different purpose in the game that can be combined in interesting ways.
Many of the different aspects work together as you would expect, such as having a Black Mage using White Magic as its secondary ability set, but there are many more… subtle and interesting ways in which some jobs, items or abilities suit each other.
This time I’ll be teaching you:
Another article about this game?
The 5 Most Broken Combinations in FFTA2
First of all, allow me to explain a little about how jobs affect how your units mature in Tactics games.
While your units won’t gain XP (experience) without participating in quests, they still gain JP (job points) when they sit on the sidelines. This means that you can custom-build most of the features of your unit without even taking it into combat, then continue its practical growth at a later time.
[Note: In the original Final Fantasy Tactics you gained XP and JP as you took each turn in battle, making its system some-what unique to Advance and A2]
Jobs change your stats in 3 direct ways:
- Your unit will have access to different items depending on its job
- Your unit’s base stats will dynamically change as you switch jobs
- Your unit will gain stats based upon its current job when it levels
Let’s elaborate.
You can examine a piece of armor or a weapon to see what jobs can use it. In addition, certain items are gender specific, and almost every case of gender specific items side with females. These limitations can be manipulated by certain Support abilities. For example, you can equip Shields on a Soldier but not on a White Mage, but you can also equip a Bronze Shield on a Soldier for a while to learn the Support ability ‘Shieldbearer’ and equip the ability. While the ability is equipped you will be able to use Shields as any job, so long as you aren’t using a two-handed weapon such as a bow or greatsword.
Remember that you have access to abilities learned from equipped items even if you are still learning them, so long as you still have the item equipped. So you can equip a Ragetsu-Denbu to gain access to Dual-Wield, equip Dual-Wield as your Support ability, then throw another sword in your offhand.
Your unit will have different statistics depending on which job class it currently is. You will notice immediate changes if you switch a unit’s job from Soldier to Thief (In this case, it would lose brute strength but gain speed and mobility), but those changes will revert if you decided to switch back to Soldier, or would just change entirely if you chose to make the unit a Black Mage. These stats make a notable difference early in the game, but are less important as you gain higher levels.
While itemization and base stats affect your unit greatly, neither affect your character as much as its stat growth.
When your unit levels it gains some stats, and the job in which it is currently employed when it levels determines where these stats are allocated. This process is called growth. Many players will argue that you should min-max this, but I believe that over-specialization breeds weakness, particularly when it comes to manipulating CT (The time it takes for your character’s speed to fill its AT gauge, so that it may have its turn). My personal recommendation is that you simply choose a path: Physical or Magical. Once you choose, then try to stick to one or the other with that unit and you’ll be fine.
To put it simply: a unit that has spent its whole life as a Mage might know how to do battle as a Fighter, but it certainly won’t be very good at it.
Now that you understand growth and how important its role is in world of Ivalice, we can continue.
5- Scratch and Boom!
Moogle Fusilier
Building what I like to call a ‘Scratchboom’ can take a little bit of effort, but it can be a fun and interesting unit to bring to battle.
First of all, you’re going to need either a Bangaa or a Moogle. Level whichever you obtain as a caster if you can, but you can also simply recruit one who is a caster from the start. A Trickster is a fine choice for the Bangaa, as is a Black Mage Moogle.
Once you have your caster, you need to keep it out of battles. While this sounds counter-productive, you need to teach it a rather strange job. You need to learn either the Gladiator skillset for Bangaa or the Moogle Knight job for mogs.
Every race (except Seeq) has its version of Ultima. If you have played a Final Fantasy game in the past, you know what I’m talking about. It’s essentially a giant explosion of non-elemental magical damage, meaning that nothing is resistant to or weak against it. It’s a reliable attack that is capable of dealing obscene amounts of damage.
These two races have access to it through melee strikes, specifically Ultima Charge and Ultima Sword. What the spell doesn’t openly show is that its attack range is based upon your weapon and the damage is based off of your magical prowess. Note that many of the abilities those two jobs have can also be cast at your weapon range.
Particular fun can be had with Rush or Moogle attack, which allow you to poke a target with a ranged weapon for around 30 damage but send them spiraling off of a cliff.
Now that you have mastered these two jobs, switch either the Moogle to a Fusilier or the Bangaa to a Trickster. Note that Fusiliers and Tricksters use weapons which have incredible range and that both are capable of inflicting a variety of interesting status effects.
Scratch an enemy from across the map with your weak weapon attack invoking Ultima, then laugh as the enemy explodes instantly.
For best results use either ‘MP Channeling’ or ‘MP Efficiency’ as your Clan Privilege. Also note that Moogles tend to deal more damage since they have more magically pure classes to gain growth in, but Bangaa can learn Halve MP as a Bishop from the Luminous Robe. Halve MP combined with either of the MP privileges allow a Bangaa of this build to fire an Ultima attack every round.
I suggest you go with whatever you think is the most stylish: Gun-toting bundles of fluff, or card-throwing lizardmen gamblers?
4- No Cost, Double Trouble
Viera Red Mage
Red Mages have always been a thing of debate. A lot of the difficulty in Final Fantasy games has come from how well a combination of specialized allies works, and the Red Mage always had a tendency to throw a wrench in that whole puzzle.
The Red Mage is the poster-child of those who are versatile; a jack of all trades. While they cannot cast the more powerful versions of spells that other jobs have access to, they have access to several schools of spells at the same time. In Tactics A2 they are unique to the Viera race, and they can cast Black Magic, White Magic, Green Magic and their own special Red Magic.
This alone wouldn’t be a real issue, since the whole problem would be balanced out by stat growth to prevent an all-powerful melee unit that can cast almost anything, as well as the ability for offensive casters to choose defensive magic as a secondary skillset anyway. What makes a Red Mage so devastating is Doublecast. Doublecast is a spell unique to the Red Mage. Using it is simple. You cast Doublecast, then pick a spell and the target, then pick another spell and it’s target. The unit will then cast both spells in one turn.
Doublecast is designed around the idea of burst. You save up mana by using the Red Mage’s considerable melee strength, then spend it all in one hit. However, this concept falls flat when you introduce the Spellblade’s Support ability ‘Blood Price’. Blood Price converts the mana cost of spells cast to cost health instead, equal to double the cost of the spell. A Doublecast throwing out Fire for 8 mana and Thunder for 8 mana, which would cost 16 mana (2 turns worth of mana) instead costs 32 health.
Now here’s where it gets broken: Introduce items which absorb certain elemental attacks. Say you have a Red Mage wearing a Flurry Robe, which absorbs Ice, walk up into a group of enemies and Doublecast 2 Ice spells so that they cleave onto itself?
You could even step it up and use Doublecast on Summoner spells. Hell, Doublecast even works on Spellblade attacks, meaning that you can strike a target for two melee hits with two chances to cause status debuffs. Fun.
3- Ultimate Specialist
Hume Parivir
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have a melee unit specifically built to be capable of decimating anything thrown at it?
You can. It’s called a Geomancer Parivir.
This build is effective since your unit will still be powerful if you allow growth as you work your way up the job tree, making it an ideal choice for Luso (your main character). The extra health and speed gained from levels in Soldier, Thief and Fighter compliment the build well, to the point of which it’s recommended that you gain a few levels in Ninja to boost the Speed benefit a little further.
Once you can choose the class Parivir, you do. You level in it, and you almost never stray. Parivirs have incredible growth and access to a variety of elemental attacks which can do Fire, Ice, Lightning or Dark damage, depending on which skill you use at the time, as well as inflicting a status effect. They also have a few non-elemental attacks, including a desperation strike that deals half your attack damage but sometimes instantly kills a target.
As soon as you can, you learn the Black Mage’s Support ability ‘Geomancy’. Geomancy works by increasing the enemy’s weakness to a particular attack by a notch, with the order being Absorb>Immune>Half Damage>Normal>Weak. For example, This means that if you strike an enemy with a spell and they would take half damage, they would take full damage instead.
The Parivir has access to several different elemental attacks. These attacks will strike with your weapon twice for the element of choice, meaning that if you would melee a target for 75 and you choose to attack with Skyfury Blade, you would strike for 150 Lightning Damage, which then would be modified by Geomancy.
So let’s say you walk up to a Malboro and slash him with an elemental attack which would do normal damage. Instead of slashing him for 75, you would strike it down with a respectable 225 damage. I will also note that I am being modest with these numbers; you will see incredible attacks at later levels, and the best part is that it doesn’t feel that cheesy. There’s something to be said about roaring around a battlefield slaying foes up close.
Another great thing about Parivir/Geomancy is that you are open to choose whatever secondary skillset you want without any real repercussions. Blue Magic is a solid choice to use while you level, and many will switch jobs to Paladin if they ever hit the level cap and keep Parivir as the secondary skillset instead, allowing access to more powerful Knight Sword weaponry. Mix it up and socket whatever secondary job you want!
2- Wise Itemization
Scholars are one of those jobs many don’t take a second glance at, but they can be shockingly effective when in the right hands.
Nu Mou Scholar
Similar to Illusionists, the Scholar’s main attacks strike map-wide. There’s a twist in their spells however: they do not discriminate between friend or foe!
This leaves the player open to three different methods for using them. You can always take the normal route and try to selectively use them and mitigate the damage (such as using their natural selection ability to target a specific race), but that’s not overpowered is it? The other two options both involve, you guessed it, items that absorb certain elements. You can go about this two ways.
The first and easiest method is to simply equip all your units to absorb a certain element, then have the scholar only cast that school of spell. If you can use the right Clan Privileges, Support abilities and supporting units (such as a unit on MP restoration duty) you can do very well, constantly and cleanly pummeling your enemies for damage while simultaneously healing all of your allies.
The third and more interesting method comes down to planning. You start by bringing at least 2 Scholars to the battle, but instead of having them absorb the spell you simply equip to have them take reduced damage. Why? Well, you socket in the Absorb MP ability and presto! Every time one of your Scholars hit another with a Tome ability, it will gain MP equal to the spell’s cost. Throw in a support healer (maybe a Doublecast White Mage) and you’re all set.
If you want to be really cheap about it, you could even bring 4 Scholars into a fight with a Doublecast White Mage. Have them all stand in a cross formation, have the Viera cast Shell/Curaga on its first turn, then simply heal through the damage. You win. If it wasn’t for the preparation work required to use this combination, it might just have been more overpowered than…
1- Map-Wide Frenzy
Hume Seer
There’s a reason why this unit setup is on the top of the list. To put it simply, I don’t recommend you use this. It’s blatantly overpowered to the point of which I feel sympathy-shame whenever I even hear about somebody using it.
It’s the Illusionist/Seer.
Humans are pretty amazing in Tactics A2, but giving them access to such a ridiculous combination was just asking for trouble.
You start by casting Magic Frenzy from the Seer skillset. Magic Frenzy allows you to choose a specific spell to cast, then causes your character to leap to whatever the spell hits and physically attack it. Next, you cast an Illusion spell. For best results, most who use this combination cast Stardust, since it’s non-elemental.
Oh, but it gets better. Before doing any of this, make sure your character is dual-wielding.
The unit will smack every enemy on the map with a spell and two physical attacks in a single round. That’s not the most broken part either; since the damage is split between physical and magical damage, you don’t even have to care about stat growth.
Certain combinations are capable of breaking this build (particularly units who use invisible or units ‘tanky’ enough to outlast the damage output) but they are rarely encountered, and are usually accompanied by enemies that would die from the flurry of attacks before they could even make their move.
This setup is the pinnacle of cheese.
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There you have it. Before I go, let me say that everybody has their own style of doing things, especially when it comes to tactical RPGs. Don’t take any of these as suggestions; play to enjoy. If you don’t, then what’s the point in gaming at all?
Overpowered Tactics A2: Broken CombinationsOverpowered Tactics A2: Bending the Laws
It’s been a little while since my last article; thanks to a combination of hectic days, weird internet problems and writer’s block. Today I found myself determined to put the fingers to the keyboard and come up with something interesting, so I decided to write about what would be considered a rather niche topic.
One of my most used pieces of gaming hardware is my Nintendo DSI. Finding a good game on a Nintendo hand-held nowadays can be a challenge; we don’t all want to know what Mama’s been cooking or randomly tap a screen at an animal like the world’s most negligent fish owner. One of the gems from the rough is a game called Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift.
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Surprisingly more playable.
It’s no secret that I really enjoyed (and still go back to enjoy) the original Final Fantasy Tactics. Tactics was a complicated, well-written and fun masterpiece. Unfortunately they made a sequel named ‘Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance’. Many people enjoyed the game, but almost anybody who had played the original found themselves outraged.
Tactics may have had rather simple graphics, but the story involved conspiracies, murders, heretics, religion, myths, lineage, war, demons… I could go on. The sequel was a game where you played as a child in a world where nobody dies and, to be frank, nothing interesting ever happens. They even introduced Judges, which even fans of FFT:A to this day cannot defend.
Judges were a good concept. They threw a spanner in the works of a player’s optimization, forcing you to think about different strategies, jobs and itemization. Unfortunately the concept was far overshadowed by a failure of implementation.
I am not even kidding you here: There are laws which forbid certain in-combat actions that are not affected by the several common status ailments that cause you to lose control of your character. Think about that. Yes, you would be punished if the computer told your berserked/confused/charmed character to break a law. Yes, if you did critically strike on a normal attack and by chance the attack knocked back a target, it was considered a ‘knockback’ and you would break that law. Yes, if there was a law limiting the damage you can deal with an action you could easily, accidentally critically strike and break the law.
Is it any surprise that Tactics A2 was so easily overlooked?
I love this game. It’s still a little childish, but at least stabbing somebody in the face kills them half the time. It’s also great that the main character isn’t a completely coddled child (he borders upon having a blood lust sometimes) and, the best part of all, the laws are a bit more refined and following the judge law is an optional choice in most missions. Follow the law and you get a little more loot, can resurrect allies mid-battle and maintain a privilege.
I heard that the story for the main character was supposed to be that he survived a plague which wiped out his whole town, but Nintendo considered it ‘too dark’ and the plot was instead granted as the back-story for another character named ‘Adelle’. Oh well, people make mistakes sometimes. All things considered, I’m just happy that his age is in the double digits.
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Now that you understand what’s to enjoy about this game, I’d like to announce a small series I will be doing about Tactics A2 which I’m calling ‘Overpowered Tactics A2′. For the first installment:
The Top 3 Ways to ‘Bend’ Judge Laws
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3- Traps, traps and more traps.
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Rangers are one of the more interesting job classes in Tactics A2, and they are unique to the Seeq race (brutish pig barbarians). They have 2 main features as a class: they are amazing at using items due to being capable of making them twice as effective (and can even reverse their effects, making a Remedy quite the hilarious offensive choice) and they lay traps; the same traps that plague you on the battlefield.
As soon as you lay a trap it’s effectively part of the scenery. You are no longer responsible for the trap and, funnily enough, you have to avoid stepping on it yourself. Due to this, you can run a Ranger or two around the battlefield dropping traps all over the map, killing off enemies with direct damage or charming them with the traps so that they kill each other.
Traps will bypass almost any law you can think of, even the limited damage laws, since according to the game you aren’t responsible for the damage. You still gain experience and items for killing the enemies, but essentially the Judge doesn’t care who laid what traps or what happens when they trigger.
This tactic is best employed by having a Viera (the bunny girl race) on field as a Sniper/White Mage, sneaking around resurrecting your Seeq Rangers should they die. If you can have all the non-Rangers invisible it’s a great advantage. Note that enemies are usually most tempted to attack from behind your characters. Use this to your advantage!
That's cold, mate.
2- Doom and Poison. Poiseidoom?
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Poison is just amazing in Tactics A2. Poison (or Regen) in this game do not have a limited duration. Poison all the enemies on map and watch as their health slowly and reliably ticks down by 10% per round. For best results, utilize the Blue Magic spell ‘Bad Breath’ (Only Humes can be Blue Mages) which can be learned very early in the game. Bad Breath will attempt to Silence, Blind and Poison enemies in a T-shaped area (cone), which is just fantastic. While Silence has a limited duration, the target won’t be able to cast healing spells while afflicted.
Need to kill something that’s healing, but can’t break a damage cap? Doom is your friend. Doom is one of the more difficult spells to cast on an enemy: not only does it usually only have a 40-50% chance to hit, but most of the effects which cause it require high-level weapons and often do damage simultaneously. Fortunately, Blue Mages once again come into play here, using the Blue Magic spell ‘Doom’ for a measly 8 mana from a fair distance away. The best part? Doom technically doesn’t do damage; it inflicts the KO status effect. You’re killing somebody without, as far as the game is concerned, even hurting them.
Avoid slowing or reducing the speed of your enemies when utilizing either of these status inflictions, since they both tick with each of the target’s turns rather than with what the game considers ’rounds’. Also note that inflicting a negative status effect on an enemy directly (without using a trap) is considered ‘harming’ them, and will still break laws which forbid harming specific targets.
I really hate the Judges.
1- An Opportunity to Counter!
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Reaction and Opportunity abilities are your friend. Unless a law specifically states that Reaction or Opportunity abilities are forbidden, they will never break laws.
Opportunity commands are pretty noticeable. Your unit’s turn will begin with it bracing and saying a quote “Time to take off the gloves” style, then an additional small menu will be available above the standard commands, listing which Opportunity ability it would use.
This ability will change if you move the unit into a different square. For example, standing by yourself will make the unit cast Protect/Shell on itself, standing near two or more allies will cast Haste on all of you and, more importantly, walking up to an enemy will allow you to strike it (or them, if more than one is adjacent to you) with a flurry of attacks. Flurry is best used dual-wielding, as you can potentially strike a single target 4 times and be completely safe from breaking the law.
As efficient as Opportunity commands are, the greatest method for bypassing laws is definitely Counter. While many Reaction abilities offer different effects (such as Strike Back dodging an attack then Countering) Counter is the most reliable, since it triggers off of almost any ability an enemy might cast, so long as it is in an adjacent square.
It just goes to show that even in the world of Ivalice, the Judge will let you go if you can justify self defense.
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I hope you’ve made use of the tips provided in this article, and thanks for reading.
Overpowered Tactics A2: Bending the LawsSony Offline Entertainment
So the Sony Network is coming back online today, much to the joy of many gamers who utilize an internet connection on the PS3 or Sony’s online PC games (primarily MMOs), but information is scarce as to why it was down in the first place. Allow me to save you several hours of wading through the various stories, interviews, rumours and accusations that are floating around the internet.
This is the story of why (and how) Sony’s network went down for the better part of a month.
The whole saga began when two gamers known as George ‘GeoHot’ Hotz and Alexander ‘graf_chokolo’ Egorenkov succeeded at jailbreaking the security features on the Playstation 3. Such an accomplishment had the downside of making cheating in online play more commonplace, but it did also allow homebrew software to be utilized on the machine.
Sony was not impressed. They began a rather ruthless backlash campaign (particularly against GeoHot) using their influence and the legal system. The court case has been going on since January this year and is still unresolved, notably threatening GeoHot with a million-dollar Euro lawsuit. The monetary demands struck me as rather sadistic; that kind of suit would cripple most Europeans for the rest of their lives and, honestly, it seems as if they pulled the number straight out of their arses.
To add insult to injury; Sony had authorities raid his home and take possession of anything which might have been related to his work on the PS3. It just goes to show that in Europe “You never buy. You rent.”
Sony even went so far as subpeonaing information from Hotz’s various online connections, including Paypal account associated with him. Sony now has a list of IP addresses of people who they suspect have made the modifications to their systems.
Gamers have been modding their systems since consoles have existed and, as far as I am aware, every court case to deny such a right has sided with the consumer. It’s understandable that the gaming community responded with aggravation at Sony’s antics.
The organization of internet hackers ‘Anonymous’ took note, releasing a statement that is rather effectively summarized in this video:
Anonymous began a campaign to harass Sony, particularly targeting their websites. The whole operation was problematic for them; Anonymous’ main goal was to lay pressure on Sony and, as specified, NOT to grief the gamers who used their network.
In response to this, Sony hired a company named Prolexic and began mitigating the damage. Sites were crashing and rebooting constantly for the first few days while both the hackers and the security firm scrambled to gain the upper hand. Prolexic apparently succeeded in blocking off a range of IP addresses commonly used by Anonymous’ personnel (and many gamers, unfortunately) due to the experiences both parties have had with each other in the past.
Sony could have potentially dodged a bullet if they had just weathered the storm, but during this time they made a particularly big mistake; they gloated. Sony quipped that the attacks were of ‘medium strength’, were just an ‘annoyance to our network engineers’ and shrugged them off, stating they would just ‘get bored’ eventually.
Anonymous announced that they would stop the attacks to prevent harm to the innocent gamers, but a few days later Sony’s PSN network suffered a massive attack which flabbergasted their engineers. A statement was released quoting that the servers would be down for ‘a day or two’ which has since been revealed to have been made as pure P.R. [A course of action made to make a company, product or person more appealing to an audience or consumers], causing frustration for their gaming community.
“The fault lies with the executives who declared a war on hackers, laughed at the idea of people penetrating the fortress that once was Sony, whined incessantly about piracy, and kept hiring more lawyers when they really needed to hire good security experts. Alienating the hacker community is not a good idea” Hotz later stated.
Anonymous denied involvement in the attack, reinforcing their stance on not harming the players who used the Playstation Network.
Sony later released a notice that much of the information stored on their servers had been stolen, including some old credit card information. The servers stayed down and have been until today, with little word to the public regarding when they would return.
Whoever was responsible for this attack has apparently made a devastating job of it; Sony has been dumbfounded since it happened. Was it Anonymous, laying down propaganda to hide a more vindictive nature? Was it a rogue hacker, seeking to punish Sony for mocking Anonymous or the gaming community? Maybe it’s something more sinister, like an opportunistic dollar-seeker who just found the cover scandal too good to be true?
Either way; gamers aren’t the only ones suffering from this event. Retailers are reporting that the Playstation 3 is being traded in and sold at an alarming rate, up by 200% in a single month [Source]. Strangely enough, the PS3 is reporting a 13% increase in hardware sales during this time despite the PSN being offline [Source], though many are skeptical since their statement was released as a response to an NPD date report.
My opinion is: They are either lying, or they are including the sales of used systems in their report. Think about it. A 200% increase in trade-in probably results in some pretty cheap Playstation 3 consoles floating around in stores. Conversely, if you’ve been looking to buy a PS3 then this might be the time to do it; the PSN is coming back up soon and the consoles are probably on sale at many locations.
Sony announced a few days ago that it will be offering compensation to their MMO clients [Source], but many customers have already moved on, and the few remaining are frustrated about the lack of information presented to them. A common question is “Are they even still working on [Insert patch here]?”
Take what you will from the whole mess, but it’s safe to say that Sony has likely learned a valuable lesson.
Sony Offline EntertainmentThe Future of DotA: LoL vs HoN
For those of you who rarely wandered into a LAN centre: Defense of the Ancients (DotA) is, without a doubt, the most popular custom map created of all time.
DotA is based upon the Starcraft map ‘Aeon of Strife’ and was recreated by a player known as ‘Eul’ for use with the Warcraft 3 game in 2003. Since then it has traded developers and has been updated countless times (currently at v6.71 last time i checked). Since then, the map’s updates were balanced and managed by Guinsoo from 2003-2005 and Icefrog from 2005 onwards.
DotA offers a simple (yet diabolically game-changing) choice upon joining the custom game: Which side are you going to play on, the Scourge or the Sentinels? This choice typically changes the selection of heroes at your disposal. There are over 100 to choose from in total and each hero has its signature abilities.
Courtney Love? Is that You?
Upon selecting a hero you gain control of it for the remainder of the map and try to turn the tides of the battle in your faction’s favour. Allied and enemy ‘creeps’ (non-player controlled units that grant XP and/or gold if slain) will begin constantly charging across the battlefield, trying to push the lines into the enemy’s fortress and win the engagement. Your task as a hero of your faction is to gain levels, acquire items and tactically eliminate enemy units and structures (including enemy heroes and certain allied minions) in order to succeed in the complete annihilation of the opposing base.
DotA’s deceptively simple gameplay (at least, compared to many methods of RTS combat) could only be described as addictive.
Now that graphics have exceeded the Frozen Throne (WC3′s expansion) engine so dramatically, it’s only natural that many DotA players are looking to move on. Then again, DotA’s gameplay was so popular (especially amongst the LAN circuit) it’s only natural that game companies are salivating at the concept of not only creating these games for the existing fans, but also the prospect of bringing new players into the fold as well.
Cue in LoL (League of Legends: Clash of Fates) and HoN (Heroes of Newerth); two standalone games based heavily upon DotA’s foundation. Never heard of either? This article may just help pique your interest.
In order to try and review the 2 games’ differences from several perspectives, i’ve decided to write it up as a tri-interview. The three interviewees will be myself, Obble and Khriptik. The questions themselves will be democratically reviewed before we each answer in an attempt to be as fair to both games as possible.
BE READY! This article is a fully comprehensive comparison and, as such, it is exceptionally LONG. Stick through it. You will find it informative.
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Q: What would you consider to be the main graphical differences between the two games quality-wise? How do they differ in visual style?
Fuzzwobble: LoL does seem to take itself a bit less seriously when graphics are compared. That being said, you can always clearly see what is happening. The spell effects are obvious and the champions stand out on the map. HoN’s appearance definitely wins out on the fancy-factor, but it does get a little pixel-clunky when movement happens. It makes me think that the abstract-realism [going for realism beyond actuality] ‘white lining’ pioneered in games such as Gears of War would actually do well here.
Obble: HoN has more of a traditional-style fantasy setting when it comes to aesthetics. LoL went for a more “cartoony” sort of style that has gotten some criticism. It seems that they’re going away from that to a more traditional style as well [He is referring to this Source]. HoN tries to replicate as much of the look of WC3:TFT DotA as possible.
Khriptik: The main differences between the two games quality-wise are the textures and styling. HoN allows for much more immersion in the game. The visual stylings also happen at a much faster rate, with concise points between attacks, even at high attack speeds. The difference in visual stylings are that LoL appears to be more ‘cartoonish’ than HoN, even on it’s highest settings.
The graphics of League of Legends. Cartoony, but clear.
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Q: When it comes to utilizing both games’ interfaces (including the size of the maps, models and accessability provided by the game screens’ varying resolutions) how do the games compare?
Fuzzwobble: In this sub-genre of games you can count on one thing; your champion is going to move quickly. The problem that really got to me in HoN was caused by this. Often my hero would zip from one side of the screen and out the other in under a second of movement. They really need to increase HoN’s view area. It still seems zoomed-in even at 1920×1080 resolution. It also doesn’t help that many skillshots in HoN can reach across several screens of distance and move at rather intense travel velocities.
Obble: Going between the two games HoN feels much more “zoomed-in” in perspective that requires more scrolling. And the minimap, while good in both games, has flaws in both. LoL used portraits for all visible champs and Hon uses the player colors.
Khriptik: HoN’s interface appears to be utilized more, with a select few areas of focus on it. Meaning that you do not need to be scattered everywhere looking at things. The resolutions covered in HoN do not appear to effect the game at all apart from aesthetics. The zoomed in nature of HoN also keeps you immersed heavily in what’s going on in your immediate screen. This also means that team chat/allies calling missing [Often called 'MIA', informing allies that an enemy has moved out from lane and may attempt a gank] is a lot more important.
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Q: Which itemization system do you prefer? Do you prefer the statistical items in LoL or the Str/Agi/Int gear in HoN? In addition, which shop’s interface do you consider more user-friendly?
Fuzzwobble: HoN’s item system suffers from the orb issues DotA had [certain effects didn't stack which had no reason not to, due to limitations in Warcraft 3's engine] seemingly on purpose, but i suppose many players of HoN would expect that similarity. Unfortunately the shop interface is jumbled, many items have no descriptions until you purchase them and there’s no way to filter for a specific statistic. Then there’s the issue of Agility heroes basically dominating late-game due to how their statistic scales while caster heroes can’t even improve their abilities… but then again, there are a lot of ‘dead weight’ and gimmick items in LoL and, while LoL has a greater variety, HoN doesn’t really suffer from that issue.
Obble: I prefer the item interface in LoL. Item building from smaller items feel quicker just from the “this items builds” tab. The difference between the itemization stats isn’t very much, honestly. There’s active items in both games and in both games there are specific way to build certain champs. There are items to make carries hit harder and tanks tankier. The only difference is in LoL there are stats to improve damage of spells and abilities, which is significant considering mage-type champs.
Khriptik: The LoL itemization system reigns in far supreme to HoN. In HoN there are a select few items, with which different strategies can be applied. But in LoL there is a much larger selection and with that, strategies and play styles. In LoL it is typically easier to find the items you are after in regards to a stat. In HoN, there are many other factors to take in to account when buying an item, such as activations, passives and general stacking of orb effects (lifesteal, slow, etc).
HoN’s method of buying items enables you to actively peruse items and combinations while playing the game. In LoL, a large splashscreen pops up which stops you from actively moving and adapting to threats.
HoN is more immersive, but feels rather 'zoomed in'.
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Q: Having somebody ‘feed’ [die to enemies and grant them free gold and experience] on your team can be a frustrating experience, whether it’s intentional or not. Which game do you find most susceptible to a team being dragged down in such a manner and, conversely, which game more effectively allows a skilled team to recover?
Fuzzwobble: For HoN it can really depend on what hero ends up receiving the boon of bonus gold and experience. An Agility carry in HoN can be nearly impossible to deal with once fed; at least not without some significant control and coordination. The issue is not as major if a Strength hero or, more notably, an Intelligence hero is fed. I’d say that it’s harder to feed in the first place in HoN due to the statistics working in this way. On the other hand, it’s alot easier for a champion to become fed in LoL, but it’s also easier to recover from it. LoL’s versatile itemization system allows champions to modify their build to adapt to significant threats.
Obble: I would say HoN, honestly. I think it would be easier to recover in HoN, mainly because late-game abilities do not scale off of damage, while using abilities to deal damage tends to be more important in League of Legends due their effects scaling off of items. Coordination plays a much larger role in HoN when compared to League.
Khriptic: I find both have the same problems and both can be countered. For those who disagree, play a high PSR MMR [Ranked] Match.
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Q: How balanced would you consider the gameplay to be when comparing the capabilities of certain heroes against others? Which game can more effectively be ‘decided at the loading screen’ in your opinion?
Fuzzwobble: I’ve had many LoL games seem intimidating at the loading screen just to become trivial in-game. Again, it all comes down to variety in itemization. [Shop smart, shop S-Mart?] It also helps that many of the champions have tricks to help them put up a decent fight against what would be considered their ‘hard counters’. On the other hand, when you see a one-sided loading screen on HoN you KNOW it’s going to be a hard fight. Luckily it’s mitigated a bit since you can see enemy champion choices at character selection in all HoN games, while LoL only allows this in ranked matches. HoN really forces you to really think about what hero you need to play.
Obble: A balanced team in HoN wins games. It’s not really necessarily that the team wins at the loading screen, but you can very easily LOSE at the loading screen in HoN. Do you have a Pharaoh?
Khriptik: I would say that HoN can be more effectively decided, because there is a certain synergy when you pick your heroes. The ability to see what the enemy picks allows you to counter-pick, hence allowing the game to be decided at the loading screen. There are so many other reasons why as well. Does your team have one too many Intelligence heroes? Beware of Magebane.
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Q: What opinions do you have regarding each game’s player base? Why do you have that impression?
Fuzzwobble: LoL can be a real pain when you first start into the game, due to ‘Low ELO Hell’. A phrase coined on the League forums, it refers to the void between your starting matchmaker rating and around the next 75 ELO up the ladder. It can be hazardous to climb; many players you will end up with on your team will be sub-par, have internet problems or might just generally be douchebags. Then again, if you have problems you can just queue with friends for a few games and push on through. Low ELO Hell isn’t a game-wrecker, but winning is always more enjoyable. If you break through, you’re set, and if you know what you’re doing you should be okay. As for HoN, i’d like more of the player base to speak english. You have no idea…
Obble: First of all. Both games are DotA at their core. The DotA community was never known for being full of cheer and happy to help. Both communities are similar with some subtle differences I suppose. The main difference being that LoL is a free-to-play game. Take from that what you will.
Khriptik: HoN: Oxygen theives and elitists. The reason I have the impression is because you’re either good at HoN or terrible at it. For HoN, most are beaners and non-english speaking people are just hard to play with and the people who upgrade from free trials then proceed to play MMR just drag people down with them. LoL: Ignorant and immature people but at the other end of the spectrum, relaxed people. The problem is that in LoL, unless you find people from each game… you’re going to be stuck with a bunch of idiots and trolls, considering the game is free to play.
________
Q: Do you have any opinions regarding either game’s front-end software? [The program or menu screen that lets you chat, prepare for or join games, etc]
Fuzzwobble: Luckily the most stable part of LoL’s frontend is the matchmaking system, but the rest of the frontend’s servers might actually improve with a roll around in a tumble-dryer. Especially their fail chat service provider: PVP.net. At least the worst thing HoN’s menu does is try to convince me to buy it’s freakin’ coins all the time.
Obble: The front-end software for League of Legends is trash. It’s buggy, it locks up, it’s crash prone. Hey there’s a ladybug on my desk. [I don't think that part was related to his answer]
Khriptik: LoL’s front end just purely sucks. I disconnect more times from ‘chat’, etc more then the town bike gets laid. In HoN, it is a very rare issue to have problems with anything.
________
Q: League of Legends features a front-end system to customize champions outside of the game, including a Talent Tree system called ‘Masteries’, summoner meta-levels and Rune Pages [A rune page basically lets you build an item out of 'Runes' you purchase using points earned from playing games. You select a page, and you gain the effects passively]. What are your thoughts on this?
Fuzzwobble: I like the customization, but i dislike how some champions are slightly balanced around Runes and Masteries, and more so around certain summoner spells (*cough* flash). Collecting the Runes can take a while, but despite all the flaws associated with the meta-system, i think the fun of modification outweighs the flaws.
Obble: It’s interesting since you can customize your champion in ways that you like. You can support your playstyle or increase on your strength. Unfortunately it also limits the champions you can play effectively since you need to grind to obtain more Runes. Aside from a specific few kinds of them, a lot of Runes are only really good for the early game. Outside of that, they aren’t really worth that much, though the early game is the most important meal of the day…
Khriptik: Provides an advantage that takes the focus away from sheer skill.
________
Q: For the competitive players: How effective is each game’s matchmaking system?
Fuzzwobble: LoL’s matchmaking has spoiled me a bit. I used to spend upwards of 30mins preparing to play RTS games (especially during the days of Red Alert 2), but LoL does a great job of streamlining the process. HoN can’t compare in this case.
Obble: I like the speed at which you can begin games in LoL. Want to play 3s? 5s? Solo queue or team queued? Click and go. You’re at champion select in under a minute.
Khriptik: LoL’s matchmaking queues are far superior and faster than HoN’s. However HoN MMR also lets you specify the regions of players you want to play with, making language barriers less of a difficulty.
________
Q: What perspective do you have on the inability to deny creeps [kill your own allied minions to limit the gold and xp obtained by enemy heroes] in League of Legends?
Fuzzwobble: Structures have a greater presence in LoL. Tower hugging would be outrageously overdone if denying existed. It would be a polar arms-race!
Obble: Being unable to deny creeps in League of Legends just kind of makes it easier for more than one person to obtain experience and gold in a lane.
Khriptik: It suits the gamestyle of LoL, just like it suits HoN. Different play styles for different games.
________
Q: If you could change one thing about each game, what would it be?
Fuzzwobble: I’d have the summoner spell Exhaust removed from LoL, then i’d have it so HoN would let me freakin’ zoom out.
Obble: I’d have a matchmaking queue for normal public HoN games. For League, i’d like it to support voicechat.
Khriptik: The server maintenance and patch downtime. Having a patch every week is irritating.
________
Q: Are there any opinions, comments or complains you would like to express regarding the two games? Feel free to go off in a tangent.
Fuzzwobble: It would be nice if both games would pay more attention to the criticism of their associated communities or, damn, even the competing player base. Sometimes i just want to take a plank, slap the word ‘OBVIOUS” on it with neon red paint and then clothesline a developer. They would never overlook the ‘obvious’ again. The forums aren’t just for show, there’s important stuff in there. READ YOUR GAMES’ FORUMS MORE OFTEN.
Obble: Both of the games are fun, though both have flaws. Most of what i’d have said has been covered already.
Khriptik: People who play this game [DotA] for the most part can be counted as immature, annoying and useless. If you have good players on both ends, losing isn’t an issue, however in most games, players are what make or break it. [Brian wished to include various descriptive and colourful insults, but agreed to remove them from his response. Classy.]
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There is something i should mention: League of Legends happens to be free to download and play. HoN has no costs associated with playing, but you do need to purchase the game to play it, just like a standard RTS. I thought i would mention this point last since, in my opinion, you should NOT let the fact that LoL is free taint your opinion. I support the industry that’s given me so much joy and you should too. It’s my mantra that ‘if a game is worth playing it’s worth paying for’, which is why i also purchase ‘Riot Points’ in LoL without any obligation.
The three of us went to great lengths to try and produce a comprehensive and balanced article regarding the debate between these two games. We sat in Ventrilo for HOURS; we were careful not to discuss questions with each other until we had answered them, but would delve into intense debate regarding each answer given. I consider this a good sign. After all, nothing says fair and unbiased like having 3 interviewees in hot discussion (borderline-arguing) with each other all night. Luckily most of it involved what was wrong with, say, [balancing_issue_001] or whether or not [gameplay_issue_004] was intentional or not.
Generally we agree with each other’s answers or, at very least, understand and have accepted the validity of our three varying perspectives. Even if this article came out a bust i would do it again; just to obtain the valuable insight i’ve gained. Debate and constructive conversation can be a powerful thing.
There is one more thing i want to leave you with before i end this article: a recommendation. If you’re considering playing either of these games (or even both of them) it is a wise choice to jump on a video site (YouTube being the most popular) and browse some in-game footage. It’s so much easier to grasp the UI, smoothness and feel of a game from video than it is from still imagery.
The sites for both titles are fairly standard. Visit either if you are interested in their associated game:
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com < HoN | LoL > http://www.leagueoflegends.com
I hope you all enjoyed today’s article. Have a good one, and TTYL!
The Future of DotA: LoL vs HoNDuke Nukem: Finally, but where’s Dark Millenium?
First of all i would like to apologize for my absence. While it was relatively beyond my control, this site was left stagnant with no warning or explanation. I will endeavour to become more reliable in the future, and i thank you all for your concerned correspondence and support. I am not worthy.
It's not just a dump stat!
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get back into it with some tasty facts and witticisms!
Let me take you way back to the historic ages of 1997:
- John Howard was baby-steps into his first term as Australian Prime Minister
- The world mourned Princess Diana after her fateful car accident at the Pont de l’Alma road tunnel in Paris.
- Bill Clinton was still in office on his first term and was considered a faithful husband. Monica who?
- The Christmas blockbuster movie this year will be Titanic; all romantically involved men are forced to see it and develop a deep hatred for Leonardo DeCaprio.
- The first teaser info about Duke Nukem Forever was released
That’s right; 3D Realms announced production of Duke Nukem Forever 14 years ago! The fans were weighed, measured, delayed repeatedly and yes, they were found wanting.
Duke Nukem: Finally, but where’s Dark Millenium?Borderlands and Brutal Legend: My Hobby Is Now Justified!
To put it simply: the title says it all. Recent game releases have been depressing and weak. It was as if I was crawling on my hands and knees through an allegorical desert of fancifully-priced coasters that came in shiny boxes, occasionally graced with wonderful, soothing mediocrity that granted about 2 days of satisfaction at best.
I found myself digging back to older titles to feed my hunger for decent gaming. I was soon booting up the true classics such as Dawn of War (which was highly underrated), Portal and Starcraft, just to name a few. Now two fantastic game titles are releasing around the same time, each of its own original style with the longevity of fantastic gameplay value.
Of course one of the games I’m talking about is Borderlands, described as a Role-Playing Shooter on more than a single occasion.
The sheer effort put into this game is staggering.
You may remember the crew at Gearbox for their work on Half-Life mods and console ports. Their work is typically on the fringe of whatever genre they are involved with at the time, often taking the time to add a new feel to an old sensation. Fortunately for us, they have more freedom to pursue their potential nowadays and kick things up a notch.
Borderlands will utilize technology which on-demand generates almost unlimited variations of enemies, encounters and weapons. It features a leveling and customisation system unheard of in a shooter. Even the combat feels very fluid and merged: feeling like a cross between Half-Life 2 and the new MMO standard of interface. Scrolling combat text AND live fire? Now you’re talking.
Words probably can’t express the synergy at play here. Click here for a YouTube video showing some preview footage of Borderlands, as well as offshoot links to actual gameplay trailers. Be spontaneous: click what you feel.
In other (perhaps even more orgasmic) news, the game Brutal Legend (check out the game soundtrack in that link!) recently released in Australia. It’s no secret to anybody who knows me that I love my metal and I have always enjoys Jack Black’s comedic stylings. Then there’s my respect for Norse and Vikings and general iron-clad kickassery that I’m often told is ‘unhealthy’. Throw into the mix the fact that I think Tim Schafer is gifted and he is producing the game? Epic.
Too much Red Bull can be dangerous to your health.
It would be incredibly difficult for Electronic Arts to blunder this one. They would have to pull something rediculously short bus to make me hate this game. Even this reply querying a PC release couldn’t make me hate the concept:
“Well it’s really an action game, that when you play it you’ll see that it was meant to be on a console.” I am not taking this out of context, the full interview can be found here and you can clearly see he has no intentions at this time to release to PC.
After hearing this, I would typically be very frustrated.
I choose to play on the PC platform because I enjoy the ability to customise and, to an even more important note, keybind my games to how I like them. Say what you will, but a standard controller will never have the accuracy and finesse of a mouse, and you would need obscene, genetically enhanced hands to use one with the same macro capabilities of an entire left side of a keyboard. While some RTS games allow mouse & keyboard setups, I doubt this game will. It’s just not the right genre.
Strangely enough though, the idea of playing it on a console still makes me excited. Possibly even more so, as I get the feeling this game will be hilarious fun to play with friends, even in single player mode. The dialogue and game style just has this wierd feeling to it, an aura if you will, that makes you want to watch it unfold.
I mean, it even lets you select as you play whether or not you want to enable or disable certain options which provide the roadie experience. If you assumed by that I meant gore, nudity and liberal swearing then you would be spot on. To be honest, the toned-down swearing in alot of games crushes the immersion. For crying out loud, remember the last time you stubbed your damn toe? You sure as hell didn’t slam out “Well gosh-darned it, that stung a mighty bit.” did you? So how do you think you would react to being hit by something that actually hurt? Or maybe encountering something that made you feel like luck kicked your gonads?
All Ozzy wanted was a stellar hug from you twats.
As for the game’s actual quality, I guess I’ll find out if EA has ‘pulled another EA’ soon enough. I’ve delayed purchasing a copy lately due to other pressing concerns, but I’ll grab one in the next couple of days and playtest it a bit with Jason. If I don’t post for a week, It’s probably safe to assume that things polished up well. There are a few songs on the soundtrack I know he’ll enjoy, but I don’t think Jason will appreciate Dragonforce or the similar styles so much (maybe Manowar?). He has a habit of allowing Nostalgia to clog his ears methinks, but I’ll admit that he has good taste and excellent musical sense.
Now, imagine air-guitaring this game with Project: Natal? Or should I say, Project: Natahl. Nat-ahl. Now I realise that Natal is innovative and worthy of much praise, but I don’t think it’s possible to expect everybody to bend the pronunciation of the spoken language around your product or service and not realise you sound pretentious.
Lionhead studios have been having their fun as usual. This isn’t exactly breaking news, but if you haven’t seen their work with Project Natal and ‘Milo’, then I highly recommend that you click here.
That’s me for the day. TTYL!
Borderlands and Brutal Legend: My Hobby Is Now Justified!